Pixar Masterclass in London

I was lucky enough to attend a Guardian Masterclass in London today to listen to the Producer Kori Rae and Director Dan Scanlon from my favourite company Pixar about their latest feature 'Monsters University'. I found the masterclass on the internet and was fortunate to get a ticket as there were only about 300.
The event took place in The May Fair Hotel (very posh!) in their very own cinema room. We traveled down in the car and parked outside of London because of the crazy traffic. We got a train in to Piccadilly and walked around which was a nice little experience in itself because I don't get to go to London often. Here are a few photographs.

Once we were inside, we were asked to hand over our mobile phones so that we couldn't record any footage or take photographs because they were going to show us something that was never before seen. I cant actually talk about it because we were all sworn to secrecy (well, they just asked up politely to not mention it on social networks).
Once we were inside and seated, we first watched 'The Blue Umbrella' which is the short film that goes along with 'Monsters University'. I love this short film and it has really inspired me for my 3rd year final production project. We then watched the main feature; I have watched it twice before this so I was familiar with the story. I just sat back and relaxed and occasionally jotted down some questions that I might ask in the Q&A session after.

After watching the film, Kori Rae and Dan Scanlon came out to do a full presentation about the making of 'Monsters University'. They went through the whole process of creating the film from start to finish and it was very insightful because they described everything; even down to the reasons for specific character designs. I made a lot of personal noted just for my own benefit when it comes to me creating my own projects. Here are my notes.

Pixar Masterclass - 6:30pm 09/10/13 May Fair Hotel, London
Sizzle reel - teasers for all 14 animations that Pixar have made so far (show reel).

Paths to Pixar - Workers talking about how they made it to Pixar. Everyone's paths are different. Most paths that are planned don't happen. Fate.

Most people who applied for Pixar had many rejections before they actually got an acceptance letter.

Monsters University explores Mike and Sully's friendship over the years. (Aimed at the 18-22 age range of viewers).

They toured many universities and colleges to see what they should make the campus and buildings look like. They went to California and the East coast. Wanted to find the 'look and feel' of real campus life. They also studies the behaviour of students.

To design the buildings and backgrounds, they call it 'Mosterising' which basically means putting horns and fangs on everything possible. That's why most buildings (especially the scare school) have faces.

Dean Hardscrabble was the hardest character to design, she was originally a male character. They found Helen Mirren and knew she was the one to do the voice and she really had some input on the character itself.
They brought a centipede in to Pixar to study its movement because they decided she would be half centipede. It was poisonous and very disgusting - the handler said 'you won't die but you will wish you were dead'.

Colour script - the colour script happens as part of the storyboarding process and is the visual roadmap of colour and light for the film. Shows the emotions of the scenes, time of day, etc.

Lighting is the most important part of a film because it creates the 'look and feel'. Anything can be achieved with light.

The Pixar Pipeline
- Story team do the storyboards (for MU it was 227,000)
- Concept art (look and feel)
- CG models of characters and buildings
- Layout phase (sense of camera and staging especially for 3D)

Pixar have created their very own lighting software called Global Illumination. It responds to the movement of characters and camera angles.

Originally they were going to have Mike and Sully meet in 4th grade (like Monsters Inc suggests) however it didn't work. The team wanted it to work so bad they even storyboarded 'Monsters Elementary' but it just didn't work with the whole university story.

Take the risks. Make mistakes.

Failure is okay, be prepared for them and always try your best to make things work. But sometimes things just don't work out - take the risks and you will always learn about yourself and others. Collaborative efforts.

Challenge yourself to see everything through even if you don't like an idea anymore. Something else could come of it.

For MU they explored love interests for Mike and Sully but they are the romance story - bromance.

Universal graphics - throughout the film graphics had to make sense to all audiences not just American.

Constant changes happened to MU - always writing in scenes, changing scenes, deleting scenes.

The story team have an open process during the writing. Always prepared for major story reconstruction to fit the whole story of Mike and Sully in. Most important that the story isn't lost.


As you can see I made a lot of notes! I was just trying to get the most from the experience because its a once in a lifetime thing. I really enjoyed their presentation and I won't forget the advice that I received.

After their presentation they had a Q&A session and I was very lucky to be chosen to ask a questions. I asked basically do they try and learn new things, go in to different departments and look in to different aspects of the film making process. They both answered that the whole film making process in a learning curve. You talk to many people each day about all the aspects of the filming like animation, storyboard, lighting, etc and so you pick up things without realising. The process is so jam packed though that you don't really get to set aside time to physically go and learn things; Dan himself had meetings back to back most days and so barely got time to eat never mind learn the specifics of lighting! However at Pixar everyone is welcome to go to classes at their campus to learn new things all of the time (if they have time!).

I was over the moon that I got to ask a questions because they only answered 9 questions and there was about 300 people there!

A final point that they made was that in every walk of life there is stepping stones that you may want to take to make yourself stretch further and learn more. For example John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, allows people to put forward ideas for the short films that Pixar likes to make. After all, short films is how the company started and so he really wants anyone at all to voice their ideas. This is a huge stepping stone at Pixar because you could eventually be a leader on your own project.

After all of this, Kori and Dan said they had a surprise and explained the reason that we were not allowed our phones in the screening. They shown a short film and I don't want to ruin it but it is called ' Party Central' and it was hysterical! We were all so happy to see this and it was like a little thank you from them to the audience for coming.

Once we left the screen room, we were in a large ball room (again very fancy in the hotel!) and we had free drinks and snacks for the rest of the evening. Kori and Dan eventually came out to everyone and spoke to all the crowd. They were kind enough to sign my book 'The Art of Monsters University' book and I literally had the biggest grin on my face whilst talking to them. I just thanked them so much for the evening and that I really am grateful for the chance to learn more about Pixar.

Here are a couple of other photographs I managed to get of the evening.

Speak Soon!